In the production of various glass fiber containing products such as glass rovings, continuous strand glass mats, coated glass cords for application in reinforcing tires and the like, packages of glass strand are utilized as feed to the secondary processes. Thus, in the manufacture of rovings, for example, many packages of fiber glass yarns are utilized in the preparation of a roving by combining several of these strands and running them in parallel on a rewinding machine to combine them as a roving product. A process such as this is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,699. Another process is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,257 where a plurality of strands are utilized to provide a coated yarn for use in reinforcing rubber tire stock.
In most of these secondary operations it is common to place several forming packages of the strand on a creel, the creel being provided with cradles shaped similar to the outside diameter of the forming package so that the forming package can be placed on the creel and nested thereon while yarn is being withdrawn from the creel and passed into the secondary operation. In rewinding operations it is common to utilize such creels, for example, to place multiple ends of glass yarn on beams utilized by the textile industry in the manufacture of textile cloth. Normally in a roving operation where a multiplicity of forming packages are mounted on a creel to prepare roving, the strand is drawn from the inside of the package through suitable tensioning devices to the roving machine. An illustration of such an operation is also shown on page 256 of THE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY OF CONTINUOUS GLASS FIBERS, K. L. Loewenstein, Elsevier Publishing Company, 1973. In some instances it is desirable to remove the yarn from the outside of the forming package when it is creeled. An illustration of an operation of this character is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,096,687. As will be noted in that patent, provision is made in such an instance to insure easy withdrawal by applying shields on the outside of the creel around which the yarn must pass during its removal from the forming package.
Normally in the production of fiber glass strands, forming packages are generally barrel shaped due to the manner in which they are formed. Thus, the packages take a generally barrel shaped form with a feathered edge. If desired, however, forming packages can be produced which possess on the inside and the outside of the package a generally flat surface. Thus, by the utilization of stroke shortening techniques packages can be made which are heavier than normal forming packages without producing a feathered edge package thereon. These packages are provided by the utilization of stroke shortening techniques common in the art and which are generally described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,151,963 and 3,535,097. Further, in utilizing stroke shortening to provide more or less cylindrical packages with flat interior and exterior surfaces and stroke shortening procedures, several small packages of considerable weight, 20 to 40 pounds (9 to 18 kilograms) a piece can be produced on a single conventional forming collet, generally in the manner as shown in FIG. 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,195.
In some fabrication operations using fiber glass materials from forming package feeds, it is desirable to utilize wet forming packages. It has been found that in utilizing strands from forming packages which contain considerable quantities of moisture, i.e., 3 percent or more, that difficulties are encountered utilizing creel mechanisms of the conventional type, i.e., creels which nest the forming package in a cradle or on which the forming package is mounted by placing the package on an arm located on the creel and unwinding from the outside. Generally the difficulty is exhibited by a sloughing of the damp yarn from the ends of the package as it is being withdrawn from a forming package mounted in a cradle on a conventional creel such as those shown in the Loewenstein reference above recited.